University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Post-Game Quotesheet
3/20/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 20, 2008
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POST-GAME QUOTESHEET
NCAA Tournament First Round, Pitt vs. Oral Roberts
March 20, 2008,
Quoting Pitt Head Coach Jamie Dixon and Levance Fields and Keith Benjamin:
THE MODERATOR: Joined now by
COACH
I was very proud of how we played, how we played early especially. I thought our offense was about as efficient as could be execution-wise, decision making. Levance, Keith, Ronald did a great job executing and finding the guys for open shots. Gilbert gave us great minutes off the bench. Our perimeter was very good. We really played against a very good defensive team. We really executed. We shot the ball well. We took good shots all the way through. I thought we did a great job on that part. Defended them well on the perimeter, which is what we really talked about doing, guarding their three-point shooters.
I thought it was a great game for us. Thought we played very well against a very experienced team who has been here before. There's not a lot of teams like that. That's a very good team that we played well against.
THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the student-athletes.
Q. Levance, it seems like you struggled a little bit with your shot since you returned from your injury. What was the difference today and are you still getting stronger?
Levance Fields: Like coach said, we took good shots. You know, for most of my shots, I think open was good, open looks. I shot over my legs, was able to get some lift. We went down for me.
When you see the ball go through the basket, it helps your confidence. I'm a very confident guy either way. But I've been missing since I came back, like you stated. I was able to knock down open shots today.
Q. Yesterday you talked a little bit about injuries, how that affected practice. How have things changed in the last few weeks? How much has that helped you get on the run you're on right now?
Keith Benjamin: It helps a lot. We've been doing a lot of things that we normally don't do at practices. Now to be back in full strength, we get to do our block-out drills and shell defense, which helps us with our rotation. Being in the right spots on the defensive end.
And it's helping us gel together as an offense because the offense is getting better also. Just having the full team out there ready to practice and guys knowing what they have to do now just makes everything better and much easier on the court.
Levance Fields: Like Keith said, you know, due to injuries, we just couldn't do what we normally do at practice. A lot of times we was just coming in, it was film and shooting, not able to do a lot of contact stuff.
So that's probably the reason why we weren't able to do the job on the rebounding in a lot of games. You know, now since we got everybody back, we've been out-rebounding teams, getting back to how we used to play on defense. Like Keith said, just more help on our rotation. Because of practice, we're getting to do it. Now we're more used to it in a game.
Q. There was an 18-0 run in the first half. They came out with a lot of energy and momentum. How big was that, to have that run, give them a dagger early?
Keith Benjamin: The run was real big. We came out, we tried to match their energy. We was feeling it a little bit, feeling the air, getting used to it and stuff like that. The game was moving at a real slow pace. As the game kept going on, they had a lot of energy still. We started getting the ball up court faster. Started noticing their transition defense was starting to break down. We started making great the right passes like we normally do, just getting great shots. That's really what it was. Eventually we started to break they back. We just kept grinding them and taking the best shot possible.
Levance Fields: For the most part, the coach did a great job on the film, scouting report with them. They said they're a high-energy team. But as the game goes on, they wear down. Like you said, they came out fired up and ready to go. We took they first blow and kept punching back, they fell down and couldn't keep fighting. As we got the lead, we didn't settle. As Keith said, we kept getting great shots. The more we made them, the more you could see them deflating.
Q. I know you caught a few minutes of that first game. Can you talk about the matchup tomorrow, what you've seen from
Keith Benjamin: We just know, just from watching the whole year, that
THE MODERATOR: Guys, thank you.
We'll continue with questions for Coach Dixon.
Q. The early run, the players were asked about it. What did you see in your team? What adjustments did you see you made from the early moments to really put the game away in a hurry?
COACH
Again, we felt good at that point because we were taking good shots, we were getting good looks. We did that really consistently throughout the game. Eventually you're going to get on your run when you continue to take good shots. We were controlling the rebounding I thought from the beginning. And, again, we just wanted to continue to make 'em take tough shots and eventually we would get our transition game going. I thought we got a lot of stuff going in transition. We made some very good passes, made the extra pass, too, once we got some penetration and dump-offs for layups.
Again, they may have been up a couple early, but I felt good about what we were doing. So it's a 40-minute game and you just got to continue to do things right.
Q. There are some teams that as the season goes on maybe don't need as much practice, need a little bit of rest. Why has this worked for you guys?
COACH
I knew throughout the year, even before the injuries, that we were going to have to do some things to continue these freshmen for them to improve. We were considered a young team going into this year. So then when you lose your two most experienced guys, this was going to be an opportunity for our guys to really continue to improve.
So it's a combination of things. Healthy, youth that we had, and that are contributors. And then, uhm, we had to get better. We had to play better than what we were doing. Yeah, usually you pull off in the summer. We had to get through. We had to get through. We were playing seven with seven guys, seven scholarship guys, guys with numerous injuries of those seven. We had to survive that part of it and really point to really those last four games in conference play is what we talked about.
Q. Fields was one of those guys that was injured for a while. He had a great game today. Can you talk about what he means when you have him on the court?
COACH
So, again, that was part of it. Plus those guys were both injured at the time when they were playing all those minutes, fighting through that. So obviously he's a great player, Levance. He brings a toughness to us, as well. He's always been our leader, along with Mike. They were our two leaders coming into this season.
But I think just having another perimeter guy gets underestimated. Again, it's allowed us to just have more flexibility in games.
Q. I don't know if you remember this one specifically, but it was in the first half when you were on a little bit of a roll. Levance looked like he had an open look and he actually decided to pass, made a turnover. You called a timeout pretty shortly after that. What was the timeout about?
COACH
But again, I can take unselfish mistakes, too, even more so, and that's what it was. So he jumped in the air. Guy thought he was coming at him and he recovered back to the other guy.
I think we got a little stationary. You have a timeout to use or you lose it in the first half. So it's a combination of things. I think it worked well. I think the timing was good for us in what we needed to do. We had gone up and down a couple possessions, as well where we hadn't been as good -- they hadn't really made a run, but I didn't like what we were quite doing offensively.
THE MODERATOR: Any initial thoughts on
COACH
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach.
COACH
Quoting Oral Roberts Head Coach Scott Sutton, Moses Ehambe and Andre Hardy:
THE MODERATOR: Coach, begin with some general thoughts on the game.
COACH SUTTON: Well, I'll congratulate Pitt. That's a great, great team we played. I knew they were a very good team. I knew they were playing as well as anybody. They impressed me today. They were better than I expected.
We've played some great teams the last two years in the tournament,
If Fields shoots the ball like he did today, they're going to be hard to beat.
The game was lost there. I thought we got out to a good start. I thought we made shots. That was important for us to get some confidence early. You know, had a three-point lead. We doubled down on Young. We switched a ball screen. Jarvis had Young. He kicks it back out to Fields. I think he hits his first three. After that point, we just didn't compete the rest of the half. I don't know, I'm disappointed in our guys. We had certain guys that didn't show up today. That's always tough. But I give a lot of credit to Pitt because they made us play poorly.
THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions now for the student-athletes.
Q. Could you talk about what Pitt did defensively to make it difficult for you offensively.
MOSES EHAMBE: I think they just pressured us out, man. They denied the ball pretty well. When the ball went inside, they made a wall, made it hard for us to score. Majority of our scoring was around the perimeter. Not enough inside. That's what we take our pride in, is going inside. We played inside out. We really couldn't get it inside, so...
ANDRE HARDY: I think what they did was with our guards, especially Robert Jarvis, they hedged the ball out real far. He's usually really good coming off screens and shooting. And he wasn't able to do that today.
He's our spark off the bench. When they hedge him, you know, that took some of our scoring right out of the game.
Q. During that run, coach said he didn't think you guys competed. What happened during that 18-0 run to you?
MOSES EHAMBE: We just lost our toughness, man, lost our focus. When we were going on our run, we were taking time setting the offense up, taking good shots, making good decisions, running back on transition.
I mean, it was just that point in time where all that left the door, and it hurt us.
Q. There was so much made of Pitt's physical toughness. How much of a factor was that in the game? Were they physically as tough as you thought they might be?
MOSES EHAMBE: Yeah, they were, as you could tell. I got this ice thing on my shoulder.
They were really tough, man. They were going to the glass tough. They're just a really aggressive team. They played really, really good tonight.
ANDRE HARDY: To be honest, I don't think -- I think they're tough, but sort of when the game gets to that point where Pittsburgh, they sort of hit you in your mouth, and you got to sort of, you know, wipe the blood out your mouth, hit them back, and we didn't punch them back at all.
Q. Andre, as you look at this moving forward in your career, what do you take from today's game that helps your next season?
ANDRE HARDY: Well, starting with when we get back, just making sure all my guys next year, you know, are working hard to get back to this point again and to be ready for this situation again, to build and move forward from this.
Q. Moses, as a senior, some of your final thoughts as you look back on your career at
MOSES EHAMBE: It's meant everything to me. It's been a great journey. I thank God for blessing me with the opportunity to be able to play with a great coach, Coach Sutton. He's a great man. He's like a father. And these guys, they're just wonderful, man. They helped me, as well. You know, great hard workers like Andre Hardy, always in the gym, wanting to move forward.
It's helped me a lot.
Q. Moses, could you talk about the way you started the game, coming out and hitting those two threes?
MOSES EHAMBE: It felt really good, man. We were taking our time, letting the game come to us. Just all of a sudden the tables turned. Y'all saw the outcome of it.
We felt extremely confident out there. We hit two big three-pointers in a row. We were taking time setting up the offense, D'ing up, which we take pride in. It just turned around.
THE MODERATOR: Andre, Moses, thank you. You guys can take off.
Questions for Coach Sutton.
Q. You have seen
COACH SUTTON: I thought we would compete better than we did. I knew they were physical. I knew they were tough. I knew Blair and Young were tough, tough matchups for us. You know, again, I thought we got off to a good start. We were up 13-10. We held them to I think 10 points through the first eight minutes of the game. Then we just, for whatever reason, they got on a run, got up four on their 12-minute timeout and from there it just snowballed. You're right, they manhandled us. Seemed like they got every offensive rebound if they missed. We didn't sprint back in transition, which was a huge key, getting back in defensive transition. They got some easy baskets. You know, next thing you know, you're down 15.
So I would say physically that's the toughest team we've played. And I think it's one of the best.
Q. Reflect now on this season. How did this team come together and play for you?
COACH SUTTON: I'll always be proud of this team. This will always be a special team because of that. Losing Caleb and Tutt, this team can't get back to where we were the previous two years. How they came together, you know, winning 24 games, going 16-2 in our conference, getting the highest seed we've gotten the last three years, this will always be a special year to me.
You know, it's always difficult to lose. There will only be one happy team on April 7th. Everybody else will have to go through this. In a few days, we'll all look back and say, Hey, this was a fun ride. I appreciate those guys, how they played this year.
Q. Can you talk about Andre's game? Twice now in the post-season, he's risen to the level of the competition.
COACH SUTTON: I tell you, he's improved so much. He's worked his tail off the last three to four weeks. I'm telling you, every time I go down too the gym, he's down there shooting. I knew he was one of the few guys that could match their toughness. I was hoping some of the other guys would raise the level of their toughness a little bit. But I knew Andre could compete in this game. He showed it tonight.
I'm not sure if anybody was as tough as he was. That's saying a lot, because those guys are very, very tough. But for him to get 15 points, nine rebounds, five offensive rebounds, for a 6'5" forward in his first NCAA tournament game was pretty impressive.
Q. You lose four starters for next year's squad. How key was having Hardy come in and be a part of this experience this year?
COACH SUTTON: I think it's huge because it gives us another guy that we can really count on. And I think it will give him a ton of confidence going into the spring and summer, next fall, to really continue to try to elevate his game.
Everybody knows what Robert can do. We got to get Marcus back playing like he was maybe a few weeks ago. We got some guys sitting out redshirting. Sango is going to play a bigger role next year.
But I think it was huge for Andre's confidence and for our confidence in him that he played like he did. The one game in
Q. We talked a lot going into this about taking the next step. Obviously you didn't get a win today. Can you still feel confident about the way this team played and the efforts moving forward?
COACH SUTTON: No, this team did more than anybody expected. To get to this point, to get a 13 seed, you know. It's tough to lose like we did today. We certainly didn't play our best game. But you have to give Pitt credit for that.
We just have to go back and recruit and get the guys, like Andre said, back in the gym, individual workouts, try to get better, try to get back to this point next year. Maybe we won't have to play a team like Pitt. Maybe we can improve our seed by one or two more.
THE MODERATOR: Coach, appreciate it.
COACH SUTTON: Thanks, guys.
